Finally Recognizing Dangers of Vigilantism, Minuteman Group Disbands

One of the most infamous border-watch groups, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, has dissolved. The group’s leader says some members took her call to come to the border “locked, loaded and ready” a little more literally than she expected.

The group’s president, Carmen Mercer of Tombstone, said she and the board’s two other directors voted to end the group’s five-year run because they were worried her recent “call to action” would attract the wrong people to the border.

On March 16, Mercer sent an e-mail urging members to come to the border “locked, loaded and ready” and urged people to bring “long arms.” She proposed changing the group’s rules to allow members to track illegal immigrants and drug smugglers instead of just reporting the activity to the Border Patrol.

Mercer said she received a more feverish response than she expected and decided the group couldn’t shoulder the responsibility and liability of what could occur, she said.

“People are ready to come locked and loaded, and that’s not what we are all about,” Mercer said. “It only takes one bad apple to destroy everything we’ve done for the last eight years.”